Mar 12, 2008

Arasuvai Friendship Chain - Chick Pea Cutlets

The Arusuvai friendship chain was the brainchild of Latha and Lakshmi of the Yum blog. This chain has become so popular in India. Now Latha of Masala Magic started the chain in USA. It’s really a pleasure to be a part of this friendship chain where we can send some surprise ingredient to two or more of our blogger friends and they can use that ingredient in their recipes and again pass it on to some other blogger friends. It’s fun doing this. Thanks for inventing such a wonderful concept.

And now my dear friend Meera of Enjoy Indian Food has made me a part of it too. Thanks Meera! I was so excited when Meera sent me an email saying that she had mailed the surprise ingredient. I waited for the mail to arrive just like we wait for the exam results. Yeah, I was that excited! So it finally arrived and I eagerly opened the packet and felt the great aroma hidden inside of it. To my surprise, there was not one but three surprise ingredients along with some goodies like a big chocolate bar, a beautiful placemat and a lovely card with Meera’s note. Here is the list of ingredients I got:

Pickle Masala – Oh boy! It looked so red in color and too spicy. It smells so nice that I put a pinch of it in my mouth and it burned my tongue. As I love spicy masalas, I was so happy to get this. But I wasn’t that familiar with certain masalas. So my mind went blank. The only thing was I could guess the ingredients used in that masala correctly, hooray! Previously I thought it was Sambar Masala. But Meera confirmed me it is homemade pickle masala and we can even make an impromptu pickle by cutting raw vegetables, adding masala, lemon juice, and tempering on top and it can be refrigerated for about 2 days. The recipe to prepare this masala can be found in Meera’s blog here and here.

"Takmaria" or "Subja" seeds – These are also called Falooda Seeds. According to Meera, they are used in a cold drink called Falooda made with milk & ice cream. I am unable to guess this too as I never saw these black seeds before. A recipe for the Falooda drink can be found in Archy’s Cook Book. That was a wonderful Falooda drink I ever saw.

Gujarati tea masala: You know what! I guessed this one correctly. Again hooray to me! It has sunth (dry ginger), black pepper, cloves, etc. as confirmed by Meera.

Thank you much for all the goodies, Meera! My kids loved the chocolate bar so much they asked me to convey thanks to you!

I thought of using these ingredients in a different way other than the specified way. So here is the outcome! I made some Chick Pea Cutlets using the pickle masala and the falooda seeds. But I used the tea masala just the way it is intended for. So our evening was full with a yummy and spicy snack with a cup of spicy tea (yes, it was really spicy! But we loved it). My husband was my taste tester. The first target of all my food experiments is my hubby (poor fellow). He enjoyed the snack with a great cup of tea.

Hi Uma,Wow, what an innovative use of using pickle masala there. Now you have given me an idea too. I always used it only to make pickles!! Very creative. Enjoy Falooda during the summer time. Thanks for being a wonderful friend!! :-D